AUD to USD Exchange Rate Rebounds From Low of 0.5506, Last Seen on the 19th March

The AUD to USD interbank exchange rate ranged between 0.6069 and 0.6213 this morning. This has continued to edge higher from the low of 0.5506 seen on the 19th March this year.

Australia Pledges Economic Support

With the number of Coronavirus cases continuing to rise now over 780,000 globally, governments worldwide are doing whatever they can to avoid dramatic economic downturns. The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison yesterday said that they were going to support the Australian economy and people. He pledged A$130bn to “livelihoods of what we anticipate of being almost six million Australians”. With the effects of the virus being felt worldwide, the Australian dollar has felt the repercussions, with AUD having seen sharp depreciation.

This morning some better than expected data releases were published in Australia supporting the Australian currency outlook. The Housing Industry Association new home sales month on month, came in better than expected at 6.2% against a forecast -1.9%. The Australian private sector credit for the month of February also came in better than expected at 0.4% against a forecast 0.2%. This could help support the Australian dollar and the AUD to USD forecast could be improved.

Better Than Expected US Data

The US dollar appreciated yesterday, however after last week’s fall the USD is well below its recent high of about a week-and-a-half ago. While the US gets to grips with the steep increase in the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases now over 160,000, there was some positive economic data with US pending Home Sales data released yesterday coming in higher at 2.4% against a forecast -1%. This can be attributed to lower interest rates encouraging people to buy more homes and taking advantage of cheap credit.

Trump has come under criticism about his approach to tackling Covid-19, with accusations he is more interested in his approval ratings rather than finding a solution to the virus. Social distancing is now in place until April 30th.

This afternoon at 3pm, the Conference Board consumer confidence for March is released and is forecast at 110.0 against a previous reading of 130.7. The measure is forecast to show a sharp fall in US consumer confidence in March. Other measures including that of the University of Michigan have already reported declines and the Conference Board reading is normally particularly sensitive to initial swings in sentiment.

For more information on AUD exchange rates for an upcoming currency transfer, you can contact myself, Brett Goulty, using the form below.